MLK Speech Sparks Spirited Debate Among Exchange Program Alumni

February 25 over twenty alumni of U.S. government sponsored exchange programs gathered at PAS to discuss African-American literature. The discussion and poetry/speech reading was led by PAO Darcy Zotter and Vice-Consuls Eric Aldrich, Thomas Hilleary, Arturo Hines and Esther Pan. The audience compared and contrasted what the speeches and poems meant to them and what was happening in China at the time each piece was written. Reverend Martin Luther King’s "I have a dream speech," provoked a spirited debate among the participants. The event concluded on a positive note with many participants expressing interest in meeting in March to discuss women’s poetry.